Hmmm....the 80's....do you remember back then?...well if you do, then perhaps I can take you back a little and relive some of those fond memories....This was a World without the Internet, no one had a mobile phone, few had a video or a microwave oven or a CD player, TV's had push buttons, but telephones had dials, toys were actually fun to play with,.....This was a World where fashion and fads (and there were some strange ones) moved at an alarming pace...but it was a good World. It was safe to play outside, without your parents worrying too much, we knew all the neighbours, by sight and by name
Marbles
Marbles are little spheres of glass, of all colours and designs. Although a big craze in the 80's, similar games have been invented by both the ancient Egyptians and also the Romans. Now back then, I considered myself to be something of a marble expert, well in the 80's, I was king. I first started with a pencil case full of marbles, back when I was at middle school, but after winning so many, I ended up with a sack full. This was a competitive sport, although some of the richer kids were easy pickings, especially girls. They'd arrive with 10 brand new unchipped "grannies" and they'd be absolutely hopeless. (Grannies were the name we gave to the largest ones, the next size being "eggies", and the smallest ones...hmmm not sure they had a name). Anyway, people used to queue up to play against them, already knowing the outcome. Then there were the games where you had a boring chipped up old marble, and they'd got some fancy jumped up equivalent. You'd barter for how many times you'd have to hit it, without getting hit yourself. 
This caused for much arguments, usually because their mum would be very angry at them for losing such an expensive piece of glass. We played in the playground, on the school field (a totally different tactical game), in the bushes, in fact, all over, there seemed to be no-where which was truly out-of bounds. Outside of school, I was at it again. I built several Marble Machines out of shoeboxes and toilet rolls, very "Blue Peter" style. Shame I have no pics, but maybe I'll make one again soon. To describe it was several boxes on top of one another, with various ramps, tunnels and archways, to shoot the marbles through. Shoot a marble through an archway, with a number on the top, would win that number of marbles. Miss the archway, I would keep it. The biggest archways were easiest, and you'd win less marbles than the smaller ones. The ramps were a challenge more than anything, maybe being 2 feet in height, but shooting up a ramp would result in little reward. Compare it to a fruit machine, addictive, but you never really win anything in the end. We'd end up losing so many 'down the cracks' between the walls and the concrete slabs, and also down the nearest drain. This however did not prove too much of a problem as we prise the drain open, stick our hands down and pull them out. Not a particularly nice job, as the bottom would contain a layer of sludge, a mixture of who knows what, but I don't think there were any lasting side effects.
Skateboards
I got my first skateboard, probably at the age of 8 or 9 - so not strictly the 80's, but it did play such an important part of my life for years to come......anyway, it was an oval piece of wood with red writing, and 4 wheels. Nothing special you think, well to me it was hours and hours and hours of entertainment (we didn't have computers/videos then). I can still playback (in my head) the sound of the wheels rolling down the hill, then maybe crashing into a parked car, or a cat perhaps. My knees and elbows were permanently covered in scabs which if I remember rightly, tasted quite nice. It is true that I have a scar on my chin from a skateboard accident - but the truth is, this was when I was old enough to have known better......hmmm...My friend Richard didn't have a skateboard, but he did have a "big wheel", which was a plastic trike type mode of transport with a huge plastic wheel at the front and a low seat. We did the friendly thing and swapped occasionally, but always had to swap back when it was time for one of us to "go in". What happened to the skateboard? Well I decided that I could take some of the ball bearings out of the wheels, well all of them actually. It was never the same again........ oh yeh and the other scar on my chin is from an accident involving a goal post.
Electronic Games
Even before I saw a proper computer, I had played a number of hand held machines : Astro Wars, Munchman, Caveman & Frogger. I was never lucky enough to have one (they were dead expensive), although my best mate Richard had them all (and a spirograph, I wanted one of those too) - was this why he was my best mate? As I remember I was no good at Astro wars, as I could never dock on the extra level, but Munchman (aka Pac-man) was my forte - beating Richard hands down every time...however to get my own back, the family purchased a TV game. This was made by Binatone, and had 8 'games' or so. Really these 8 games were just 8 variations of bat and ball, played in black and white with a few bleeps thrown in for added enjoyment. Still this was amazing, it was a big thing, just one problem was that we couldn't play a couple of the games involving the additonal light gun. We had to wait until the next big birthday until we got that, now we could shoot a blob moving across the screen - marvelous......To read more on my old computers, click Old Computers
Dens
Something of a status symbol as a kid - a den. What's a den? Well it's a place where you can go, and lose touch with reality for a while. It's an escape, a World where you were king of your surroundings, and trespassers would be frowned upon, pelted with mud or sometimes taken on board depending on your mood. Where I lived in the early '80s, there was a mass of wasteground, now occupied by a cramped housing estate. This wasteland was no more than an old landfill site, along with a stream, some trees, and a lane which seemed everlasting.....named Mile Lane. This area was full of old rubbish, bits of wood, bricks, galvanized iron sheets and old appliances - plenty of material to build structures, albeit unstable structures. So much competition in the den building World, meant that often you'd return to find your den flattened, or worse still, the materials stolen. This was the most stress I had to deal with as a kid. Still there was a scary time when a group of us had pushed a concrete drainage pipe into a nearby stream, unaware that we were being watched, by a man and his terrifying dog. As soon as we saw him, he demanded that we stayed put until he had returned with the police. Of course as soon as he was gone, we ran as fast as we could - and I mean we ran like there was a dragon on our tails.....Not far from this wasteland was a wonderful place called "The Orchard Adventure Playground". Not a huge place, just a collection of mainly wooden structures, to climb on, over, under and hide in. The favourite was the "Death Slide". You'd climb two floors of a structure, put your hands through two loops of rope, and jump off, and slide down...terrifying. You could of course build your own structure using the array of old wooden palettes, hammers and nails, and basically anything which wasn't attached to someone elses structure. Of course rules can and were broken. One particular structure springs to mind, which even made the local papers. It was a huge construction by one of the older lads, some 6 or 7 levels with a mind boggling network of passages and secret rooms, some with wall to wall carpet. This was nicknamed "The Thing" and was a landmark at the playground for some time. The site was provided by Exeter City Council, and run by volunteers., in fact it's still on it's original site, and continues to provide enjoyment for kids during those long summer holidays, and without charge. Life was so simple then, we'd have a favourite tree, and some bushes around it, and could amuse ourselves here for an entire day.....
Flares & Sweatbands
I was unfortunate in the fashion department in the 80's, as I seemed to still be stuck in the 1970's. Not my fault, I mean what can you do at the age of 10? I inherited many of the hand-me-downs from my elder cousins, and while I appreciate now that times must have been hard, I still remember back then when I felt that little bit different. I used to try and hide my flared trousers, by using a couple of elastic bands - who was this supposed to fool? I used to wear welly boots a lot too.......Still I managed to keep up with the "Sweatband" craze, although I've no idea what that was really all about, oh and how about those bright pink, orange or green glow in the dark socks? At this time the girls were all wearing leg warmers too, especially in the summer.
Camping
The vague memory suggests this happened sometime around 1985......with the money saved from my numerous newspaper delivery rounds, and the remainder of my life savings, I went all out and bought a tent, a sleeping bag, plastic cups and plates, a water carrier and several boxes of matches. I also took my swiss army penknife, which had been a much treasured birthday present from my parents. I remember the first day I got it, I brought it to school and cut my finger on the blade on the way there....
As it was my tent, I made all the rules - where we camped, when we ate, and who was next to re-fill the water containers. The first time was scary. Myself, and friends Aaron and Kevin setoff with rucksacks on our backs, and marched up to a village outside Exeter called Upton Pyne. There were no campsites so we went looking for the farmer who owned a field next to a wood - this looked ideal. After many visits to people in the village we tracked him down, and permission was gained. Even still this was a spooky place to camp. Next to a wood there were so many sounds, and it seemed like we were a long way from home - although in truth it was only a couple of miles. The photograph shows myself and Kevin relaxing in the sun.
The Igloo
The date? well I'm, not 100% sure, but it was the 80's anyway, I must've been 11 ish or so. It used to snow more than it does now, or it seems to anyway, well we had enough to build this igloo. Why we don't have photographs of all this, I don't know, but times were hard, a film must have been a luxury. This was a great engineering feat, constructed by a couple of schoolboys, but it stood, you could get inside, and it was like a real igloo. We went in for tea, and when we returned, it had been demolished from rivals across the road.
BOC
One of my first impressions was some being called BOC. It was basically a box on my head, now the details are vague. Why oh why do such stupid things stick in your mind? Answers on a postcard please.
So what else did we amuse ourselves with during the 1980's?
Dealie-boppers
What the hell were all these about? Plastic headwear with a variety of different objects stuck onto the ends of springs. The original ones were kinda glitter balls, but then there were windmills, stars and all sorts afterwards. Of course I had some, how ridiculous.
Rubiks Cube
It's a fact that 100 million Rubik's Cubes were sold in the between1980-1982! This "toy" was just a six sided lump of plastic, each side in a different colour, which absorbed people all over the world, of all ages and all classes. You could either do it or you couldn't, but almost everyone you knew had one. In fact it was so popular, it was even in the Oxford English Dictionary. Apart from the standard "cube", variations with more faces, cubes on keychains and so one were created. Many books were written on how to solve the puzzle, but not before it drove most people to insanity, or of course cheating (removing the stickers or physically taking the thing apart). The creator, Erno Rubik is still busy creating new puzzles. Personally I was never very good at it, and much preferred with simplicity of games such as Buckaroo and Ker-plunk. Slinky, the toy which walked down the stairs was also great!
Remote control cars
I was really pleased when I received a remote control car as a gift, no one else I knew had one you see. I wasn't particularly good at controlling it however, and it would often crash into walls, and bits of the car would fall off. I stuck pieces of foam to the front and back to replace the plastic bumpers in the hope that a crash wouldn't have such an impact. The 80's was a time when electronic toys really took off, they could be produced in massive quanities cheaply and easily. Batteries became something you always needed more of, and they'd be as expensive as some of the toys themselves. Re-chargables were almost unheard of, and Duracell and Ever-ready would compete in this fast growing market. The car, I remember burnt itself out long before I had mastered the art of controlling it. The 80's was also the decade where calculators made it into a lot of households. I remember aquiring one from one of the neighbours who hadn't a clue what to do with it, although he showed me how to write 80085 (BOOBS) with it. This seemed like an unbelievable gift, of course now, a calculator is cheaper than a portion of chips, although not as tasty perhaps.
10p mixup or 10p comic
We used to have two ice cream vans which came around our estate. Quite often, rather than an ice cream, we'd have a 10p mixup. This was a selection of 1p and 1/2p sweets chosen by the ice cream man, including Sherbet Straws, Dib Dabs, Space Dust, Blackjacks, Fruit Salad chews, Mojos, Golf Ball bubblegums, Gobstoppers (with aniseed centres) & Jawbreakers, Traffic Light lollipops, liquorice shoe laces and catherine wheels, White chocolate mice, Milk & Cola Bottles, Rhubarb & Custard lollipopd, and those little tubes of Violets, as well as those flying saucers filled with sherbert . He'd even give you a little paper bag to put them all in. It seemed this bag would last for absolutely ages! What a bargain, and delicious too. I doubt in this day and age, the ice cream man would bother with penny sweets, if indeed you can actually still buy one for a penny. Down the shop too, there would be loads of pocket money snacks, favourite sweets included Spangles, Tootie Frooties, Refreshers, Animal Bars, Love Hearts, Pacers, Rainbow Drops and those sweet packets of cigarettes, which you could pretend to smoke, and sweet lipstick you could eat! What about the tube of sherbert with a liquorice straw to suck it all up with, and then eat afterwards. Not forgetting Alphabet Sweets, different coloured letters in a box, so you could make words before you ate them. Ooh, and KP, Ringo, Frazzles, Chipsticks and Potato Puffs crisps too, they were all great and cheap, as well as the rather tasty "Fish n Chips" snacks! There were those crisps made by Smith too, which came with a little blue bag of salt, which you could add yourself, then shake the bag...that was fun! And to wash it all down, Panda Pops, Top Deck Shandy or Corona. An alternative use of 10p (in 1982 anyway) would be a purchase of my favourite comic, "The Dandy". I built up a reasonable collection, and would read them over and over again, never growing tired of the same stories and characters - Desperate Dan, Korky the Kat, Bully Beef & Chips, Winker Watson and the rest. At the start of 1980, the comic was just 7p. Some issues would have free gifts too, I remember one being called a "Thunder Bang" which would make a loud noise when you flicked it! I think I actually joined the Desperate Dan Cowpie Club, and received badges and other goodies.
Of course I didn't partake in all the 1980's crazes. Things which passed me by include "Breakdancing", "He-man" action figures and "Cabbage Patch Dolls"! I must have watched a fair amount of TV though, as I remember classic programmes such as The Fall Guy, Bullseye, Different Strokes, The Dukes of Hazard, Dallas, Mork and Mindy, Grange Hill, Knight Rider, The Muppet Show, The A-Team, Airwolf, Cagney & Lacey, Captain Caveman, Dangermouse, Scooby Doo, The Incredible Hulk and so many others......more memories to come, just as soon as I can remember them!
